The Stop Brexit march on its way to the Conservative party conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex in Manchester, October 1, 2017. Peter Byrne/Press Association. All rights reserved. Clueless, arrogant, outgunned. The attitude displayed towards the UK's Brexit negotiators in much of the media is derisive. Witness the treatment of July's notorious negotiating table photo opportunity: on one side, the European Commission behind piles of neatly stacked papers and, facing them, David Davis's team, empty table gleaming. Without pausing to consider possible explanations, reporters gleefully proclaimed that this demonstrated UK unpreparedness and the naive expectation that it could fly by the seat of its pants.
Whether they have been responding to remorseless anti-EU propaganda from the right-wing press, fighting a rearguard Remain campaign, or simply failing to add enough nuance, our charge is that even influential pillars of the serious media, highly respected for accuracy and objectivity, have failed to provide fair coverage in the post-Referendum period. In so doing, The Guardian, The Times and the BBC, for example, exude pessimism about what is admittedly the hugely challenging and controversial process of implementing Brexit. This article examines the mindset that seems to contribute to the problem.
We should first make our own position clear. Absent some significant political development, the UK will be leaving the EU and the Single Market; any future economic relationship with the EU outside the Single Market will be less favourable than market membership; a new relationship will, however, be far better than leaving without a deal; and, even though the economic terms outside the Single Market will be inferior, a pragmatic approach is required in order to make the best of a bad job.
